Best in UK for textiles

TWO MMU students were named among the country’s most promising young designers, as the School of Design scooped three awards at New Designers 2005.

New Designers is the largest and most prestigious graduate art and design event in the UK and each year awards around 40 prizes in design from fashion to furniture*.

This year Tasmin Seed, from Chesterfield, won two awards – the £1,500 Tiger Print Prize, and the £1,000 Embroiderers Guild/Coats Craft UK Prize, and Emma Shipley, from Surrey, won the British Contact Furnishing Prize.

Both students have just graduated from the BA Embroidery degree course with upper second class honours. Overall MMU won three out of the seven awards in textiles.

Previous MMU winners at New Designers have had their work commissioned by well-known design houses such as Terence Conran, Donna Karan and Vittorio Radice, and both students are already in demand.

Wonderfully decorative

Tamsin, 22, who also won a three-month work placement, said: “I already have some offers of freelance work and this prize money will allow me to fund a computerised textiles machine for my designs.”

New Designers Judging Panel said Tamsin had created “some wonderfully decorative, fun and wearable children’s garments in which the embroidery is superbly integrated with the design.” They said that Emma had “produced some beautiful work of a very high technical standard.”

Emma, 22, who also wins an all expenses paid trip to exhibit at the Index Show in Dubai, said: “I’m very excited. It’s very unexpected. This award will allow me to start some of my business ideas.”

Both students say they may continue at MMU on the Batchelor of Design course at MMU, a special training year in which designers are taught about setting themselves up in business.”

Ends

*New Designers is held at the Business Design Centre, London, and is open to 35,000 UK graduates in art and design in fine art and sculpture, interior design, furniture, lighting, jewellery and ceramics, fashion, textiles and more.

Notes:
MMU’s Faculty of Art and Design is the largest in the UK with more than 3,000
students in everything from architecture, landscape, painting, sculpture, fine art, illustration, animation, acting, dance, art direction, jewellery, metal, photography, graphic design, bronze casting, video, TV programme design, fashion and more.
For more information, go to www.artdes.mmu.ac.uk and for New Designers, go to www.newdesigners.com